The present disclosure generally relates to location-aware services and configuration thereof in communication systems, such as 2G/3G/4G communication networks.
Conventionally, location-aware services are known, for which the location of a terminal device to be served is determined and the services are provided to the terminal device according to its location. Such location-aware services are typically configured by a network operator, to which the user of the terminal device in question is subscribed and via whose network the services are thus to be provided. Namely, in current service models, only the subscriber (user) and the operator have an agreement about services, e.g. location-aware services, which are to be provided by the operator to the subscriber or the subscriber's terminal device.
Accordingly, in current service models, a venue owner, i.e. a responsible for a certain venue area, is not involved in an agreement about services, e.g. location-aware services, between a subscriber and an operator. Accordingly, a venue owner is not capable of effecting or influencing a configuration of location-aware services (i.e. per-venue services) between a subscriber and an operator, even if the subscriber or the subscriber's terminal device is residing within the venue area controlled by the venue owner.
A venue may generally be any (limited) site or place, which is under the control and/or responsibility of a venue owner, and where a number of users with their terminal devices may gather. For example, a venue may be a locality such as a campus, a (e.g. religious) place, a stadium, an office building, a shopping center, or the like. In such venue, certain services or service restrictions may be desired or required by the venue owner. For example, in order to avoid disturbance of a meeting (e.g. an annual general meeting), a (e.g. religious) activity or gathering, an event, or the like in such venue, it may be expected that everybody turns off his/her terminal device or, at least, set his/her terminal device in a silence mode in which a ringing tone is suppressed.
In such exemplary situation, disturbance is difficult be avoided in a safe manner, especially with a high number of participants, as. The venue owner can typically not ensure that everybody has actually turned off his/her terminal device or, at least, set his/her terminal device in a silence mode. For example, everybody will be disturbed when a single participant's phone is ringing because of being left in a general mode and receiving a mobile-terminated (MT) call. While jammers could be installed so as to prevent any signaling and/or traffic to arrive the terminal devices residing in the venue area, such approach has several drawbacks, such as a reduced visibility of subscribers' availability for operators in their networks, a degradation of or an uncertainty about (realistic) key performance indicators (KPIs) for the operator's networks, a need for installation of various jammers for different frequencies, and the like.
Accordingly, it would be desirable for a venue owner to be capable of effecting or influencing a configuration of location-aware services (i.e. per-venue services) for subscribers or subscriber's terminal devices residing within the venue area controlled by the venue owner.
Thus, there is a need to facilitate venue owner-controllable per-venue service configuration.